Couva South MP: Does PM have swine flu?

COUVA South MP Rudranath Indarsingh wants to know if the Prime Minister has been struck down by the H1N1 virus, commonly known as swine flu.

He has challenged Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh to state the real H1N1 statistics in the country and whether that is what has befallen Dr Rowley.

Rowley has missed consecutive local government campaign meetings because his colleagues say he has the flu.

At a meeting in San Fernando on Tuesday night, Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi deputised for him. On Thursday night, at a meeting in San Juan/Barataria, deputy political leader Fitzgerald Hinds filled the PM's spot.

Rowley's last public appearance at a rally was last Sunday at the PNM convention and campaign launch.

Noting what he said was the PNM’s fascination with statistics and data, and its accusation of the UNC's collusion with Cambridge Analytica in data mining, Indarsingh said Deyalsingh – who recently accused the PP government of hiding statistics – must say how many deaths have occurred to date from the flu.

“The PNM, all of a sudden they concerned about data," Indarsingh said, but he wondered why the government could not give statistics of how many people had lost their jobs to date.

"They concerned about statistics, but after four years, Labour Minister Jennifer Baptiste-Primus cannot tell you what is the true unemployment figures in this country. Jennifer Baptiste- Primus has been missing in ction since Arcelor Mittal closed down. Yara Trinidad Ltd has signalled they will close down by December.

"Who next on the Point Lisas Industrial Estate? And we are not hearing from Jennifer Baptiste-Primus, nor are we hearing from Energy Minister Franklin Khan on whether they will intervene in the negotiations with NGC and Yara to preserve the operations of Yara and to preserve the over 350 jobs, directly and indirectly, which will be affected by this closure."

Addressing a UNC meeting in Claxton Bay on Thursday night in support of candidates contesting seats on the Couva/Tabaquite/Talparo Regional Corporation, Indarsingh said his political leader Kamla Persad-Bissesssar, in the Parliament, reported that 63,633 people had lost jobs under the PNM’s tenure.

“When she (Persad-Bissesssar) said that in the Parliament, there was not one rebuttal from the PNM. The entire Cabinet got pip. They can’t talk.

“And Deyalsingh who know who hide statistics but could not say who were the office holders instructed not to provide the statistics for 2013, 2015 and 2015. We want the statistics.”

He said not only the Prime Minister but people throughout the country had the flu.

"I want to ask Deyalsingh, 'Terrible Terrence,' as the public knows him, in terms of his failure to deliver health care, how many deaths are associated with swine flu and how many suspect cases there are at the San Fernando General Hospital. How many confirmed cases are existing."

He said it was a sad state of affairs when the PNM was talking about data mining and statistics, "but they can’t tell tax-paying citizens how many cases there are and how many vaccines are in the public institutions.”